Cyclehoop Turns Every Street-Sign Into a Bike Rack

Here’s a genuinely good idea for bike parking, which is currently, and surprisingly, being trialled in London.

The Cyclehoop is a steel hoop which clamps onto lampposts, street signs and other urban poles and turns them into proper bike racks. The advantages to the host city are great: it’s a lot cheaper and quicker than the digging and re-concreting required for normal racks, and the Cyclehoop takes up almost no space in comparison.

And its good for cyclists, too. The ‘hoop is put purposely low on the post to discourage top-tube-only locking, which is apparently a major encouragement to thieves. It also allows more than one bike to lock to a single post much more easily and stops them being lifted over the top. The units are secured using shear-bolts, which are bolts which lose their wrench-shaped heads at a specific torque, leaving behind a smooth, conical head that cannot be turned.

But there is one more advantage to the Cyclehoop — it legitimizes locking bikes up to street furniture, something most cyclists do anyway. Here in Barcelona, the law somewhat fuzzily says that you can’t lock bikes to lampposts or trees. This is so widely ignored that the cops let it go, usually, but of course that doesn’t stop the occasional old lady ticking you off.

The CylceHoop is being trialled in the Islington and Southwark boroughs of London. Any Londoners who have seen or used these brightly colored froot-loops locks, let us know what you think of them.